GLOBAL citizenship learning with a difference has been taking place at Campie Primary School, with children hearing of refugee life from a Burmese teacher.

Liberty Thawda has been sharing culture and learning at the Musselburgh school over the last two weeks.

Her visit is part of a global schools partnership linking Campie with the Child Development Centre (CDC) School in the Thai town of Mae Sot on the Burma border.

All its pupils are Burmese refugees who had fled fighting in their home country.

Mrs Thawda is a director of education and child protection at the local Mae Tao Clinic, and her trip to the Honest Toun was funded by the DAASK Trust.

DAASK Trust was established by Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi – who has symbolised the country’s struggle for freedom during the longest civil war in history – with her $1.3 million Nobel Peace Prize winnings.

It heard about the partnership when Campie pupils promoted their link at Westminster last year.

Debbie Beveridge, headteacher, said: “It is an honour and a privilege to welcome Liberty to Campie and to Musselburgh.

“This is a unique opportunity for our school to learn so much from someone who has lived a very different life and has very different experiences.

“I am immensely proud of our children for the warmth and respect they have shown to Liberty and believe this is a fantastic learning opportunity for us all.

“This partnership is of vital importance to Campie and we are planning to continue our joint learning under a framework of citizenship.” The link started in 2009 under the UK Government’s Global Schools Programme (GSP) that paid for teacher exchange visits.

GSP ended in 2011, with the DAASK Trust stepping in after Campie’s visit to Westminster.

Pupils had been invited by East Lothian MP Fiona O’Donnell to show their film, asking for their partnership to continue, to Baroness Glenys Kinnock, patron of the Burma Campaign UK and chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma.

To date, four Campie teachers have been to visit CDC, and Mrs Thawda is the fourth Burmese teacher to come to Musselburgh – her first time outside Asia.

She said: “I cannot believe that such wonderful schools exist. The children at Campie are wonderful, they know so much about Burma and CDC and are always asking such intelligent questions.

“We have told the children not to take their education for granted as they are so lucky. I wish all children in the world went to a school that was as good as Campie.” While in Musselburgh, Liberty has also visited the town’s Grammar School, Wallyford Primary School and Prestonpans Infant School.

She has discussed the Burmese people’s plight with MSP Sarah Boyack, has met with child protection officers from East Lothian Council and NHS Lothian, and attended a family ceilidh in her honour at the school, where she was delighted by a Preston Lodge Pipe Band performance.

The ceilidh was also attended by Burmese students from Newbattle College, Edinburgh University, Glasgow University and Edinburgh Napier University.

Mrs Thawda has also visited Karen (Burmese ethnic people) communities in Sheffield and London, and met MPs at Westminster.

Gaynor Allen, a Campie and Grammar School parent, who is hosting Liberty and has led the global schools partnership at the school, said: “Our relationship with the Burmese community both in Mae Sot and locally has made a massive difference to our school.”